Google Docs and Sheets Get Serious With Add-Ons

In its mission to convince users to switch from Microsoft Office, it appears Google’s had a few tricks up its sleeve. To put its productivity and customization tools for documents on par with Microsoft’s, Google is now allowing users to install add-ons in Google Docs and Sheets. These tools, created by third party developers, can increase your productivity and, Google hopes, give you one more reason to choose Google Docs over Microsoft Office.

Available Add-Ons

Dozens of add-ons are already available, including Avery Label Merge, which lets you print address labels and name tags in Docs by pulling in data from Sheets. The EasyBib add-on provides a search tool for citing the books, journal articles and websites you reference in your document and helps you create properly formatted bibliographies using MLA, APA and Chicago styles. And Merge by MailChimp lets you insert custom information from spreadsheets into your self-designed emails within Google Docs.

Other add-ons include:

Google Analytics

Twitter Curator

HelloFax

Lucidchart

Social Drop

Ultradox Template Editor

How to Use Add-Ons in Docs and Sheets

To browse for add-ons to install to your Docs and Sheets, click Add-ons from the menu bar of any open document or spreadsheet. Next select “Get add-ons” and a window will open that looks similar to the Chrome Web Store.

Once you find an add-on you like, click the download button and the add-on will immediately become available across all of your documents or spreadsheets.